The prime minister says the abuse activist and former Australian of the Year took the focus away from this year’s nominees.
The prime minister says the abuse activist and former Australian of the Year took the focus away from this year’s nominees.
By Michelle Griffin and Millie Muroi
Updated January 27, 2025 — 11.36amfirst published at 11.09am
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised former Australian of the Year Grace Tame for attending a function at The Lodge wearing a T-shirt with the words “F— Murdoch” on the front, saying her protest took focus away from the event held to honour past Australians of the Year and this year’s finalists,
Pressed by ABC Radio Perth about his response to the abuse activist’s choice to wear an obscenity on her top to the Australia Day eve event, Albanese said: “I held a function. It is something that, in my view, took away from the people who were there, and my focus was simply on that.”
Asked again at a press conference in Perth why he didn’t respond to Tame’s shirt, Albanese added: “There was a queue of more than – how many people were in the queue? Around about at least 60. There was all of the Australia Day nominees. There was all of the past Australians of the Year. There was the Australia Day Council. People were just there, one by one, rolling through, being welcomed. And [Tame’s shirt] was clearly designed to get attention. I don’t intend to add to that attention because I do think that it takes away from what the day should be about, which is the amazing people who were nominated as Australians of the Year.”
Albanese defended his decision to pose for the photo. Pushed further on whether he agreed with the sentiment of the shirt, Albanese said, “I clearly disagree”.
“I want debate to be respectful … and that’s a choice that she made. People are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for,” he said.
Albanese paid tribute to the newly announced Australian of the Year, former champion AFL player and coach Neale Daniher, who was awarded for his work championing research for a cure for motor neurone disease after he was diagnosed with the degenerative condition a decade ago.
Tame, who was awarded 2021 Australian of the Year at the age of 26 for her advocacy for sexual assault survivors, arrived at The Lodge in a grey checked suit and the T-shirt bearing the anti-Murdoch message in capital letters.
The prime minister and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, made no mention of the T-shirt when Tame lined up to shake his hand alongside 15 other former Australians of the Year and current state honourees, although the ABC reported that Albanese asked Tame: “Reliving memories?”
“Yeah, reliving some trauma, maybe,” Tame was heard to respond, promoting polite laughter from Albanese and Haydon.
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Asked on ABC Perth why Tame was allowed to wear the T-shirt, Albanese said: “You’re suggesting that this was within my power. When someone walked in wearing that.”
Told he should have thrown her out, he continued, “People were invited, and my focus was on the people who were receiving the awards”.
On Saturday, Tame said she wore the T-shirt to the function because “it’s a great shirt and says it all, doesn’t it?”
“If we want to dismantle the concentration of morbid wealth that undemocratically rules the world and really makes the major political decisions that affect the everyday person; if we want climate action and if we want justice, if we want truth, I think it’s probably a good place to start.
“If you want to get a few birds with one giant, ugly stone, this is it.”
Asked for her message to News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch, she said: “You’ve ruined the world.”
It is not the first time Tame has used the annual function to make a statement. In 2022, pictures of a stony-faced Tame – the then-outgoing Australian of the Year – standing next to then-prime minister Scott Morrison made headlines.
Tame had criticised Morrison throughout her time in the role for not doing enough to stamp out sexual harassment in Parliament House after a series of sexual assault claims.
At the time, Tame did not meet Morrison’s gaze as she shook his hand, posing for pictures with the former prime minister and his wife, Jenny, without smiling.
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Michelle Griffin is Federal Bureau ChiefConnect via Twitter or email.
Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Canberra. She was formerly the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via Twitter or email.
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